Cutlists

Just as important as the shop drawings, is the cutlist for your project. CabWriter also provides an additional set of tools called Cutlist Bridge that allow you to export all of the cabinet parts as a cutlist including all of the common information such as:

Part (component) number

Sub-assembly

Description

Quantities (copies)

Thickness, width, and length

Material name

Notes

Finished thickness, width, and length (see below for explanation)

There are two options for exporting a cutlist, either as a Comma Separated Value (csv) file, or as a Cutlist Plus fx Gold or Platinum compatible file. CSV files conform to a universal standard and are compatible with Excel or any other spreadsheet as well as a wide variety of other programs.

Cutlist Plus fx is a very versatile and cost effective cutlisting program that not only lets you manage your cutlist, but also facilitates material estimating, plywood optimization, label printing, and many other operations to help you be more efficient. If you choose, CabWriter will output a fully native file that Cutlist Plus can read in directly. If you don’t have a CNC, and want to save time and use your sheet goods most efficiently, CutList Plus’ plywood optimization functionality is a great choice.

Scroll down to see how CabWriter’s cutlist export works…

Excel (CSV) Export

Cutlist Plus Export

First, select all the parts to be exported to the cutlist. Notice that a Sketchup scene has been created that shows just the carcass and solid wood parts in the model; it excludes anything non-cutlist related such as appliances, walls, floor, countertops, etc.

Under File->Cutlist Bridge, choose whether to export a .CSV file for a spreadsheet, or a CutlistPlus fx compatible file. DXF export is discussed in the Plywood Optimization and CNC Integration pages. The file will be exported to the same folder containing the Sketchup project files.

A great feature that CabWriter provides is the ability to add additional information to parts in a model. Sketchup has Entity Info, or attributes, for each part in the model and CabWriter extends that with its own Extended Entity Info. Not only can you can you assign the material type and name (as well as other information), but you can also add oversizing information to a part that subsequently shows up in the cutlist. This can come in handy, for example, if you build your cabinet doors oversized in thickness so they can be sanded to final thickness later and/or if you build your inset doors oversize so they can be fit to size later. Notice the highlighted door stile in the model to the right: the thickness, width, and length are all oversized which shows up in the corresponding line item on the cutlist. Both the oversized and final sizes are shown on the cutlist.